CC RES 91-040 RESOLUTION URGING CONGRESSIONAL RELIEF FROM APPLICATION OF SUPERFUND STATUTE

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• CITY OF ST. ANTHONY RESOLUTION 91-040 A RESOLUTION URGING CONGRESSIONAL RELIEF FROM APPLICATION OF SUPERFUND STATUTE WHEREAS, the City of St. Anthony, Minnesota, strongly supports the general concept of the Superfund statute (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act) which makes parties who have created, transported, managed or disposed of hazardous waste liable for the cost of hazardous waste cleanup; and WHEREAS, under the Superfund statute, hazardous waste site polluters acquire the right to sue fellow polluters to share the cleanup expense; and WHEREAS, polluters have discovered a means of attempting to shift the costs of hazardous waste site cleanup to taxpayers of the nation by suing city governments for their volume of municipal solid waste placed in landfills, thereby causing enormous legal costs and potentially unfair economic effects • on city governments throughout the nation; and WHEREAS, the Superfund statute does not and should not focus on municipal solid waste; and WHEREAS, the Environmental Protection Policy recently adopted an Interim Municipal Settlement Policy that it would not routinely pursue local governments under Superfund, acknowledging that only a tiny fraction of municipal solid waste may be toxic; and WHEREAS, that policy does nothing to stop polluters from launching expensive and often frivolous lawsuits against city governments, many of whom have only arranged for or licensed the pickup and hauling of municipal solid waste from within their respective borders; and WHEREAS, such lawsuits are beginning to yield results whereby the nation's cities, school districts, very small businesses, and potentially its citizens are prospects to be sued by polluters; and WHEREAS, the City of St. Anthony has recently been targeted by polluters under the Superfund statute as a potentially responsible party; and Is